On this thanksgiving would like to detail, things I am thankful for.
Thankful for being able to build Viddler these last 4 years and focus on passion of online video.
Thankful for family, that keeps on loving me, no matter how far I am, or focused with work I have become.
Thankful for having worked the amazing Donna DeMarco, co-founder in Viddler, who has helped build a balanced Viddler and and an amazing family of her own at the same time.
Thankful for Poland engineering and fact that they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving so they will be able to watch over our servers.
Thankful for an incredible designer.
Thankful for every Viddler investor, employee, uploader, and viewer.
Thankful for a great girlfriend, Dana Fish, that understands why this Viddler obsession might be first thing I give thanks for at this point in my life.
Thankful for the few of you, reading this blog, taking the time to follow this adventure.
Interested in learning a little more about me? This is a a fun little montage I created of my weekend with my family and Phil on May 19th in Clearlake, California.
Much has changed since my last post when I was working for Macromedia and sure that I would be back to California in December. These last few months have been full of exciting personal adventures as well as business ones. I am going to stick to the personal stuff with this post.
Girlfriend
First things first. I have had the fortune of meeting Dana Fish , a genuine Lehigh sweetheart. We have been dating for over 10 months now and does a great job at keeping me balanced with the startup lifestyle.
Friends & Travels
I’ve had some great experiences with Greg Gurevich, a friend & business partner, skiing and traveling the country. It seems like only yesterday we were trying to snowboard for the first time and were literally rolling down black diamonds at Mount Tremblant.
Brother
My brother is continuing to rock out as starting nose tackle for Colorado State. He had two solo tackles at this years spring game and is looking solid for a second year starter and is only going to be a junior next year!
De La Salle Alumni
Three high-school teammates of mine recently went in the NFL Draft this year, including Maurice Drew (2nd round, Jaguars), Demetrius Williams (4th round, Ravens), and Kevin Simon (7th round, Redskins). Robin Meadows, a very close friend and De La Salle teammate, who started at Offensive Line for Washington, was also picked up as a free agent for Baltimore. It looks like all four of them have an excellent chance at making it in next season and will have some fun times watching pre-season football. Having 3 guys go into a draft for most colleges is a considerable feat, not to mention a high school!
Graduation
I also finally graduated! Just went through Lehigh’s graduation ceremony in May to celebrate a B.S. in Computer Science & Business. I was finished with classes in the fall but they don’t have ceremonies for mid-year graduates. This leads to one question: What have I been doing for the last six months in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and what’s the plan? I’ll describe business ventures in the next post…
This weekend was the Lehigh-Lafayette game, the oldest rivalry in college football.We faced them for our 141st match-up and lost. It was a heartbreaking loss for Lehigh that had the Patriot League championship and a playoff bid on the line. If we had won, we would have tied Colgate for the league title and gotten an automatic bid into the playoffs (1AA does a playoff system unlike 1A’s bowl game). We had been in control of the game until there were 46 seconds left. Lafayette was looking like they had little hope. It was 4th and 10 on the 36 yard line. They decided to go for it instead of trying a risky 53 yard field goal.As their quarterback, Pat Davis, was getting tossed to the ground, he threw the ball up in the end zone towards Jonathan Hurt. It should have been a sack; it was an impossible throw, an impossible catch. It was the one play that changed Lehigh’s entire season.
More Than One Play When you play football, coaches and players always try to look away from the one play that put your opponent ahead. This makes sense, because offense usually has 14 drives to put points on the board and you can’t put it all on one play just because it happened to be at the end, even as much as this particular play will be glorified as quite possibly the greatest catch/comeback by Lafayette. There still were 100+ snaps/chances that are going to be overlooked. On top of that, there is a year of preparation that goes into that one game that never gets seen by the fans.
Comparisons to Business
It’s also important in business to never become fixed on one “lucky pass” and to look more at the entire game. Everyday, these lucky plays make for small wins and losses in the business world. For example, many people look at large Internet companies (Google, Yahoo, Macromedia, Adobe) buying companies for a specific technology/play. The reality is, though, that they are usually buying talent. When Google bought Zipdash, an online mapping company, to build Google Maps, it wasn’t just because of their technology; it was because they had a functioning team that had vision and working results. When looking at any outcome it is important to look at the bigger picture. Tailgates are Great, But I’d Rather be Playing Even if Lehigh had won, going to the game would still have been tough for me. Watching old teammates like Adam Salmaska, the starting guard that I had the fortune to play next to for two years, always brings back the feeling that I want to physically damage a maroon-jerseyed cat. Let me explain my dismay. On top of Lafayette being our rival, in the 2003 match-up, two of Lafayette’s defenders tore my ACL, MCL, and PCL; It took a total of 9 months of rehab, 3 months on crutches, and 5 weeks lying in bed with a machine attached to my knee to recover and finish out a physically painful senior season. It was one of the most hardening experiences of my life. The rush, responsibility, and adrenaline that flowed through my veins on game day is going to be hard to forget.
In football, as in life, cheating should not be condoned. Erik, my brother who plays Nose Tackle for CSU, did win on Saturday against Wyoming 39-31. Erik told me after the game the refs did not make a holding call all game and he was really upset. So what am I getting at?
Football teach’s life lessons. Life is not always fair is one of them. It’s all about overcoming and being the toughest guy on the playing field.
Hello and welcome to my personal blog. My name is Robert Sandie, a digital entrepreneur, co-founder and President of Viddler. Join me as I update this blog on the daily challenges of startup.
